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Today’s letter is “D” and we will look at a distinguished tractor that disappeared from detection. Detroit Tractor There are several obscure tractor brands out there and this is one of them. The Detroit tractor is a bit of a forerunner of the skid steer. Edward Grace who had worked for Ford Motor Company decided to build a modest sized four-wheel drive tractor for light duty farm work. Weighing only 1,660 pounds the Detroit Tractor was only half the weight of most small general-purpose tractors but twice the weight of garden tractors. It was about the weight of a Farmall Cub or Allis-Chalmers “G” but with four-wheel drive could no doubt outpull either one. The tractor is powered by a Continental N62 four-cylinder, 16-horsepower motor with 62-cubic-inch displacement and was produced in 1947 or 1948. Information on these tractors is very sketchy at best. The engine is coupled to a transmission with clutches on both output shafts. Open Chain drive to sprockets on the four wheels transfers the power and serves as a speed reduction mechanism. There is no information available about the clutches or the transmission but it appears to be the same as used on a caterpillar type tractor. The Detroit Tractor appears to be ruggedly built from its cast aluminum hood to its diamond plate fenders, it is unfortunate that we weren’t able to learn mor about this fine machine.

Took the 1075 out of the garage today for the first time in a while. It fired right up. This is the closet thing I have to a hot rod. Big block, short frame, stack exhaust, baby moons, custom decals, nice petina. What's not to like about it ?

Picked up this tiller today (just after I finished planting my garden). It's in much better shape than mine (tines and sheet metal). Young couple moved into an old farm a few years ago and found it in the barn. When I asked about the mid mount idler I got that deer in the headlights look. We looked around for a few minutes and found it under some other stuff along with the mower deck chute. Told them that I have the deck that it fits on and they told me to take it. Unfortunately there wasn't any other WH stuff in sight. Makes you wonder sometimes how things end up where they end up.

Its gonna be a ballad.....because he's been neglected, needs quite a bit of attention, and I'm assuming its going to take me just about forever to get him rolling again. I don't know much about RJ's other than I always thought they looked great and I wanted to pick one up at some point. So this is very much a learning experience for me trying to research what is original, and what has been modified on it. That being said, I'm committed and in it for the long haul. He has been hacked up just enough that I don't feel obligated to keep him 100% original, but will do my best to keep from making any permanent modifications. A few links to get everyone up to speed. Sir Wally was dropped at Ed's house by a friendly neighbor Ed decided he had too many projects, but decided to do the hard part of disassembling him. Once again....THANK YOU Ed!!. It made picking him up easier, and also meant that I could immediately start to assess what he needed instead of getting shoved to the back of the garage waiting for a rainy weekend. Here is how he looked when I picked him up I had a little free time last week, so I decided to tear into the Briggs motor that was included. It was in rough shape, but I believe I can make it run again. I'm not sure if it will end up back on Sir Wally, but it was/is something fun to tinker with. I currently have it all torn down, case split, and trying to figure out if I want to try replacing the rings as I have no idea on the actual identification of the motor. Here is that adventure The next step I thought should be the transmission. My thought process here was that if the transmission was completely shot, I might as well cut my losses and part him out. As luck would have it, the transmission spun freely, shifted into all the gears, and didn't appear to be sloppy. I also wanted to get on it ASAP due to the big show looming and it being the best chance of sourcing transmission parts if I need them.......AND it turns out that I do. So here we go, I wanted to put it all here so I can document things as best I can. The transmission. It has no casting marks next to the shifter, so I believe that makes it an "early" 58 5003? I started off by swearing at this roll pin for the clutch/brake for about 4 hours......broke a few punches, but eventually got it out I also had to work on the rear hitch quite a bit, as it was rusted solid in place. That took some heat, AeroKroil, and patience, but I got it out. The side bolts all came out easily and all of the threaded bosses are still intact, so that's a bright spot. Popped the side cover and got met with the wonderful combo of water and milkshake I turned it over and let it drain over night to get as much gunk out as possible It was pretty nasty, but I was initially encouraged that I didn't see any obvious damage. That changed once I get things completely torn down an cleaned up You can see the axle wear/scoring in the pic above. They could possibly be flipped, drilled, and reused, but It may be a smarter decision to source replacements. There are a few chipped teeth on the axle gears you can see in the pic above as well. There are a few broken off, and a few more with cracks that look ready to break off

Finished this one up. Started on #2 & #3. Hope to have a couple more to sell at the show.

The Dig Dug saga continues! Managed to get the spindles and hubs on Friday evening. Today was some grease packing and tire squishing to get the beads to seal.(short lifting strap and a big lady slipper to twist with). Results are better than expected! Even the steering is much improved. I may not put weights back on, as they only improve traction and do nothing for balance at the rear axle. Then again, I'll have to see how a heavy load does. And I do like my big WH logos in the weights. First mission.. 6 bags of potting soil!

1054 a favorite here and always nice to have another cheese 🧀 head in the ranks!

So work has begun on this Lil pony. Put new tubes in the back tires as they wouldn't hold air. Removed the deck and the battery. Drained the oil. Turned it on its side to replace one of the belts that drives the deck Geeeeez they didn't make it easy to get to. Not sure what needs to be removed to get it in. Once the belt is installed we will change the spark plug, pour in some fresh new oil. Reinstall the battery. Should be good to go. One owner, original bill of sale and manual. Not bad for 75 bucks plus another 32 bucks for tubes and belt.

Just toss them in my truck along with the tiller, I will deliver them.

Not likely to hold air, good candidate for a tube

The SMS-50 sickle bar may or may not have had two versions of the side plate portion of the sickle. Our sickle has the original, wider plate frame made specifically for the 953/1054 garden tractors. i know there are other sickle bar mower attachments that are one inch narrower than the 953/1054 to accommodate the other Wheel Horse 10/12/14/16 hp motorized garden tractors. I have owned both types. You have to search the manuals to find out which model you own! You need search the drawings for all the part nuances. the wider 953/1054 sides plate set up will work on smaller frame width tractors by placing a block between frame and place. However, a smaller with sickle plate set up WILL NOT work correctly on a wider framed tractor. The sickle puts a lot of stress on the tractor and the rear attachment to the transmission, the side plates and the side hanger for the blade keeps things balanced.

I also saw a little damage on the spider gears. I think these are "OK", but through researching it appears I can replace all 4 with newer ones for a reasonable price. I'll probably go that route, but not sure yet The brass bushings/bearings in the side plates and center hub are all shot. The outer ones are severely scored, and the inner ones are worn all the way to the carrier Of course, the worst of the damage is on the bull gear and mushroom gear. I don't think I could bring myself to put this back in a transmission unless it was going to be stationary the rest of its life The bull gear has a bunch of weird wear on it as well. It almost looks as it was "repaired" at one time by someone who can't weld and then ground down. There is a lot porosity in the teeth, along with what looks like poor penatration and undercut. This is the only one I've ever looked at, so I have nothing to compare other than pictures. It still looks like it may be usable, but I have this idea bouncing around in my head that this "repaired" bull gear is what tore up the mushroom gear so much. Hard to say, and I will never get any proof either way. So that's where I'm at currently. Still assessing and looking at what my options are to get this transmission back together.....and that is the desired result. I think it is definitely in good enough shape and worth a rebuild, especially since its not on a timeline.

id say i didint do to bad then if i go get thoes i got 3 tractors and a cultivator for selling 1 tractor

More paving and digging this morning. Put down a 4 inch wide strip of concrete to take some bricks for a step. Our garden is 40 foot wide. So tell me why, oh why did my dog decide that 4 inch wide strip was the only way to get from A to B.

theres pictures, and the tires look good and it had decent patina, i also wanted to put 1 more thing, the discription says "Wheel horse rj. Runs and drives comes with a cultivator. Transmission does have some noise but shifts through all the gears." so may need a transmission rebuild or bearings? i am guessing that is what the noise is, that would be a fun summer project

My wife says I can’t go anywhere without knowing someone, even a few states away. She has been right so far. 😜 The JD guy is Evan Killips.

The 857 I got from HHHOOOWWWAAARRRDDD!!! had the remnants of the fogger attachment. Of course the holes in the hood that held the tank are still there but the tank was gone. The exhaust hookup was still there but sadly that finally rotted away and I had to remove it. @prondzy has the Blitz tanks

Well done Kevin. Seems to be the case with lots of things, if they don't make enough profit from the sale of the product they make it up selling parts. That is one of the best parts of working on a Wheel Horse, off the shelf repair parts.

I see two differences in Lane’s picture from yours. His mounting bracket is outside the frame, and a bit further forward on the mounting hole but about the same distance from the foot rest. It makes me wonder if your bracket would fit outside a standard Horse frame? Possibly it needs to fit my ?

Took @WheelHorse_Kid’s c-121 out in the dark last night and dragged the 14-8 up to the garage. Started working on it and determined the starter was junk. Swapped it out, cleaned the points, cleaned the giant mouse nest out of on top of the flywheel, removed the junk muffler to get to the points, cleaned the carb. Starter solenoid is junk so I bypassed it and went straight to the starter and ran a jumper wire to the coil. Took a little cranking and fiddling with the choke but got it to run for a few minutes. Need to dial it in. Shoots flames from the exhaust pipe. But at least it runs and didn’t sound to bad.

So this came up for sale on a local site. Suzuki 500cc motorcycle engine on a Stanley Lawn Tractor. Looks like a lot of fun. Maybe if I was many years younger I would go look at it. Guess I can sit here and wait for @Pullstart to build one.

Via the Allied Attachment Program, there were several interesting attachments available. Many of these I’ve never even heard of - like, a fogger or the Gard-n-Cart! Who knew. I’m wondering how many of you have any of these attachments and is it still at work? What’s it’s history?

Thanks everyone. Off work all this week (not this job , my 9-5 job ) , quiet day at home with the beagle and my tractor stuff

Man...i was mounting some kart tires years ago, they go on a 6" spun aluminum 1pc wheel, you put a pvc ring around the tread to keep it from stretching. The sound that both the tire and myself made when it finally seated around 100psi were very similar

the guards on the blade are those plastic covers used on chain link fences at little league and high school baseball fields. They sell on eBay in colors.

Yes that's Our annual council tax bill, what I guess you call property tax.. That covers garbage collection, other council services and the other bits for policing and fire service. Our other bills for gas, electrickery, water also have VAT on them. Value added tax at 20%. Is pretty expensive just to live these days.

Dang, you got a ton of taxes

New member and owner of a 1054 I am looking for a manual and would like to get everything back to as close to original as I can TIA

Axle seals for your 1 1/8" axles is SKF 11050.

Our definition of that is a shed/barn that is built off site and delivered intact to the site. These are exempt from most regs. and permits. Any on site construction requires a permit. Any new addition requires a detailed dimensioned plot drawing showing all buildings, existing and new, that must be approved before a permit for construction is issued. Maintenance to existing buildings require a permit but only a written explanation of the work, i.e. new ,siding, roofing, windows, etc.

I just used regular oillite bearings in the PTO and Clutch shafts. Drilled the frame out to 5/8" and used 1/2" ID x 5/8" OD on the c-120/180 you drove yesterday. There isn't a flange on them', used 1" long bushing and saw them in half. " Clean up the shafts so the bushing would slide on. PTO bushing installed.

I'm thinking you should latch on to that quickly. Transmission should be an easy fix.

You could say she was testing the consistency of my mix, her face was a picture as she started to sink in it. Did I mention I'm building a greenhouse? Decided to take the plunge and build one myself rather than spend a fortune on a prefab aluminium one.

There is NO other way.

The missing piece to be welding again, some tubing for my argon shield gas. I’m so much $$ ahead!

Regarding joints... Two types of concrete. 1. Already cracked or 2. Will crack

Yes as said above, the only difference in the P series 18 and 20 hp engines are the cam and the carb. All other parts are the same.

@cafoose interesting pictures , would like to have one of those myself , something glairing at me is the pulleys ,not a sign of lubrication ,often refer to COLLECTIVE ROTATIONAL DRAG , in any belt drive set up , another thing is the tiny original bearings , replaced most of my pulleys with same size / type , but with bushed larger bearings , also re greased , with hi temp / stress grease . also refer to a belt driven set up moving with ease , by hand . just a suggestion , pete

Happy Birthday Brian, thanks for all you do keeping our old Horses alive!

Just a suggestion, you might weld that angled seam above and below that crack for maybe an 1” + length to strengthen that area. On one that I had totally apart I had it welded from the inside. But That would be complicated to do on an assembled tractor. If you can make a small piece of metal to go behind that crack as a reinforcement if there’s nothing that bolts on the back side. Roughly an 1/8” thick or what ever you welder likes would give him something to help get good weld penetration while not burning through that sheet metal.

Congratulations- and I am jealous! Ark 500 was arguably the closest match and definitely best looking allied loader on a Wheel Horse!

That aerator looks like a mid evil torture device!!

I just love the sight and smell of the wild lupine in the spring. Last spring it was so dry and a bad year but this year is pretty good. This was taken as I mowed yesterday and the same mowing as the fallen tree episode. At least these guys won't try to squish me.

More siding set on the last 3 days along with the first of four windows being installed. These are a tip in & down "hopper" window. 18 x 32. We'll be able to set a small double window fan in place for added air movement. Biggest bonus is that they give good natural light but I don't have to look over at the neighbor's yard.

He cruises that JD at Portage quite a bit. I’m sure that would be quite the task!

Is ther any tractor guy in this state you don't know?!?! Im sure you know the guy on the JD. He knew me but his face escaped me. A show regular. I was trying to turn him from the dark side...

Just the opposite, the belt goes on the larger pulley for a faster blade speed. The correct mule drive has spring loaded pulleys to compensate for the change in location as the deck height is adjusted. Running a fixed location mule drive may lead to the belt being too loose or too tight.

Information lists the 1988 312-8 as using a transmission with 1" axles and 4 pinion gears. Perhaps it is not the original transmission?

Okay, so it’s been awhile since I messed with my C-160. I finally got my welder/ blacksmith/ artist/machinist to weld the tab back on the front axle kingpin ( that’s what I call it). It had some worn places on it. I know there’s a lot of you fellows who would not take this approach to the repair, but I decided to just fill the worn spots on the shaft with some JB Weld. I think it will go another 40 years or so with this repair. I know there will be plenty of filing and sanding to get it somewhat back round…